A Case Study of Future-Building

This book is our way of wrapping our minds around these enormous challenges by studying people who, one brick, one dollar, one sensor at a time, sit in meetings and in front of computer screens and occasionally get out to see a physical landscape in their efforts to create a new order of things. In fact, so much is new about these efforts that it can be hard for observers (and even for those involved) to know what to make of the promises, the expectations, and the progress along the way.

Our ideas are conveyed with the help of a longitudinal case study—a human story that reveals certain truths about managing complex innovations—supplemented by archival research on smart-city projects carried out by other organizations and by interviews with leading thinkers and practitioners in related fields. These additional sources help us set the context that gave rise to the founding of the small company at the center of our research: Living PlanIT. We watched the company grow and change, stumble and get back up, and reinvent itself. Sometimes we thought we could see the future of Living PlanIT alongside the Apples and Googles and Facebooks of the world. Other times we wondered whether Living PlanIT could navigate the seemingly insurmountable challenges ahead.

Leading Audacious Innovation through Big Teaming

Living PlanIT was pursuing a bold vision. When we encountered the company, its scope—building a brand-new sustainable high-tech city from scratch to lead the way to building more such cities around the world—was breathtaking. The company struggled with doing anything small, anything partway. We learned of the team's conviction that being big was integral to their strategy. It seemed, sometimes, that it had to be all or nothing. But what might the company do to test its vision, develop its strategies, and make steady progress toward the ultimate prize of building the future?

Whatever the long-term fate of Living PlanIT, we could not have chosen a better opportunity to learn what building the future truly involves. The company gave us a rare opportunity to glimpse a group of creative, hardworking people pursuing a dream. Intrigued by the promise of smart-city innovation, at times we suspended disbelief. To set the stage for our research, we start with some background on the urban built environment, drawing from the chorus of voices that has considered its challenges and opportunities.